


The Unforgettable Fire

by oneunexpected



Category: The Underland Chronicles - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, gorger and ripred are only mentioned in passing, i might change the title one day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 00:42:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17415698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneunexpected/pseuds/oneunexpected
Summary: A brief look into Vikus' relationship with war at four different points in his life. Originally written for Underland Chronicles Fandom Week; I'm only five months late.





	The Unforgettable Fire

When he was young, there was peace.  


It wasn’t a terribly stable peace, of course, but in his youth, he didn’t understand just how close his people were to war. The gnawers’ border seemed far, the warning horns were silent, and the most concerning issue to young bonds was how many points they could score in matches in the arena. But eventually he understood what was going on. The way the farmers fervently harvested their crops, the way the combat instructors progressively demanded higher standards and harder training, the way more and more messenger bats raced over the city all made it clear to Vikus: War was coming.

He met Solovet when he was too young to understand. She was a spitfire, fierce as could be, and he was enthralled with her from the beginning. Together they rose to the top of their class. Solovet, ever competitive, bent over backwards to try to one-up him in both combat and classwork, and Vikus, ever eager to please, bent over backwards to try to impress her. 

Solovet, of course, knew exactly what he was doing, and she found it to be the cutest thing she had ever seen.

So the two became inseparable, partners in anything and everything, both hungry for adventure, and that did not change even as their wild teenage years drew to a close. They lived their lives for the thrill of it, blissfully ignoring the threat looming beyond the city walls.

And then the gnawers attacked. They took the Fount by storm one night, raiding and pillaging and killing, and by the time the humans could drive them back out, hundreds were dead. Safe in Regalia, Solovet cried and cried in Vikus’ arms until finally she said, “All I want is the people to be safe.” And then she was silent.

War had arrived, and it changed each of them in turn. From that day on, Vikus sought healing and Solovet sought revenge.

  


Two decades later, Vikus and Euripides were flying alone through the Dead Land in the middle of a particularly costly war that had been fought on and off for five years. _Bloodshed. Ceasefire. Bloodshed. Ceasefire. Bloodshed._ During the last truce, a small band of rats had approached Vikus, who was serving as a commander and strategist at the time, hoping to enter peace negotiations. They couldn’t officially represent the gnawers, but they believed that some of them would have enough influence to present a plan of compromise to their queen, who they thought might listen.

They had been wrong. The truce was ending and it seemed everything would be just as bad as before. Vikus began searching for any sort of solution, any sort of path towards peace, and consulted one of the rats who had approached him, a gnawer called Ripred.

Ripred was young and restless, and although he hadn’t been considered an adult by rat standards for very long, he was cunning, wise beyond his years, and already single-handedly the most fearsome fighter the rats had. It was hard to tell what Ripred’s endgame was— Vikus doubted that even the rat knew— but as good as he was at killing Regalian soldiers, he did not seem particularly bloodthirsty, and they seemed to have enough of a common interest for Vikus to take the gnawer’s advice.

His advice was to turn to Spurnslice, an influential gnawer who led the band of rats that had approached Vikus. Ripred believed Spurnslice might be persuaded to convince some of the gnawer queen’s troops to abandon their ranks. Vikus was optimistic with his mission; Spurnslice was open to compromise and preferred discussion to fighting. Vikus liked to think she was similar to himself, and after spending countless hours with her, he went so far as to consider her a friend.

“I think we have arrived at her den,” Euripides murmured, coasting in for a landing in a cave dripping with stalactites. Vikus dismounted and called, “Spurnslice? It is Vikus. Will you show yourself?” Euripides suddenly snapped his head up, and into the lamplight wandered the gnawer. Vikus smiled; he hadn't seen her in months.

“Hello, Vikus,” greeted Spurnslice. She sounded tired and... nervous. Why did she sound nervous?

“Greetings, Spurnslice. How fare your pups?” Vikus asked warmly.

“They are as well as the circumstances may allow,” she replied, swiping a paw over her face. “And almost full grown. And yours?”

“They are well, and growing up much too quickly for my liking.”

“Safe in Regalia, I assume,” Spurnslice said, not meeting his eyes, an edge creeping into her voice.

Vikus swallowed. “Well, yes.” In this particular war, the brunt of the fighting had been closer to the rats’ lands. There was an long pause. “You know, the fighting will resume soon.”

“Yes, Vikus,” she said, still still staring at her paws. “And I know why you’re here.”

This took Vikus aback. “You do?”

“You think you can divide us,” she murmured, “so we’ll be easier to defeat.”

Vikus shifted from foot to foot uneasily. “Spurnslice, you know I only want the fighting to stop—“

“The fighting will never stop!“ She suddenly snarled, raising her head to meet his gaze. “Don’t you understand? You win the war and so what? We put up another treaty, redraw the maps? And then we go back to war in a decade because you’re tired of keeping your promises? It’ll never stop! You will never actually commit to peace!”

“Please, Spurnslice,” said Vikus, taking a step back, “I understand why you speak in anger. But if we could just talk—“

“No,” Spurnslice sighed, suddenly sounding tired again. “There’s no more talking. There can only be one winner.”

Vikus nodded curtly, turning around towards Euripides, thinking it was best for him to get out of her den, to try to regroup with Ripred and the others in his pack.

“You misunderstand me, Vikus,” Spurnslice called after him quietly. “I can’t let you leave this cave. I’m sorry.”

And she was sorry, Vikus could tell. Her apology was genuine.

He put on a burst of speed towards his bond. He tossed himself on to Euripides’ back, who immediately tried to take to the air as the rat charged at them. She leaped just as they were leaving the ground, and she latched onto a wing, tugging them out of the air. The bonds crashed hard onto the stony floor. Vikus rolled off the bat’s back as Spurnslice snarled over Euripides’ still body. “No!” He shouted, plowing into her side, the two of them tumbling away from Euripides. Spurnslice shook her head, apparently briefly stunned by his tackle, as Vikus scrambled to his feet and drew his sword.

“Why are you doing this? I will not believe that you suddenly had this turn of heart all on your own,” Vikus said, stepping back towards where the lamp had rolled off of Euripides’ back.

“I woke up, Vikus. My queen won’t listen to me, and your king won’t listen to you. It’s foolish to pretend you and I can end the carnage. Especially with your wife leading Regalia’s armies.”

Her words hit him like a fist to the chest. _Solovet._ He wanted to reject the gnawer’s words about his wife. Yet why else would he have been hiding his peacekeeping efforts from her? “But why... this?” He managed to ask, gesturing with his left hand towards his opponent as they circled around each other. “There is no reason for us two to be fighting. We could both walk away from this.”

“Because you’re a commander. Because you came here asking for me to take action that would lead to the gnawers’ further subjugation. Because you almost convinced me you were in the right. Hell, you just being a human would be enough of an excuse for most gnawers. There are plenty of reasons,” Spurnslice replied, her voice thick with conviction.

“Please,” Vikus begged, “your actions only push us further into war.”

“Then there will be war. And I have confidence the gnawers will win. Our armies are strong. Gorger says—“

“You have been listening to Gorger?” Vikus interjected incredulously. “No wonder you speak like this! Gorger is too young to remember anything but war! He was raised on it! He thrives on it! Why do you take advice from one so much younger, so much more foolish than you?”

“Because he doesn’t live in the past like you do,” snapped Spurnslice, “like I used to. He will stop at nothing to make sure our kind are safe!”

Vikus stopped short at her words for a moment. They were so familiar. And yet...

“He cares nothing for your safety. He cares for his vendetta. He cares that he can comfortably climb into power.” Vikus was sure of that. “Please, Spurnslice, listen to me for a moment. We can discuss this—“

“The time for discussion has come and gone, Vikus,” the gnawer said coldly, and with that, she launched at him.

He didn’t know how long the battle lasted, if it were one minute or ten, but he put all of his effort into defending himself from Spurnslice’s onslaught. She fought with a fervency, a desperation he had never seen her display in combat before. There was no sound strategy in her movements, which made her relatively easy to defend against, but her ferocity made up for her predictability. Soon, his left forearm was bleeding profusely and his right thigh had a deep puncture from where her claws had broken through his defense, but she was nearly unharmed, sporting only a few small wounds on her shoulders and front legs where Vikus had parried attacks. He was unable to go on the offensive. Or possibly unwilling. “We must stop this while we still can,” begged Vikus in the heartbeat of stillness after another of her unsuccessful strikes. In response, Spurnslice threw herself directly at him with an anguished cry, her jaws open, her teeth ready to receive his throat. But she never made it.

Vikus’ sword was suddenly in front of him. In the next instant, Spurnslice was on it.

He could see the shock in her eyes. Then she fell to the floor, dead, his sword still impaled in her chest.

He panted and turned sharply, running back to where his bond lie still. “Euripides,” he murmured, pressing his ear into the grey bat’s chest where he found a strong heartbeat. He was alive. Just unconscious. 

The same could not be said for Spurnslice. 

He walked quietly back to where she had fallen and gingerly retrieved his sword. And then he fell to his knees and wept.  
  


Fifteen years later, Vikus sat with his legs dangling on the edge of a balcony in the High Hall, deep in thought. An hour earlier, after finishing a dinner at the palace, his daughter had pulled him aside. “Father, I must tell you something,” Judith announced quietly, her eyes shining with excitement. “I am with child!” 

Vikus gasped. “Oh, Judith! Congratulations, love!” He beamed as he pulled her into a hug. Another grandchild! “Congratulations!” He repeated, unable to put his overwhelming excitement into words. “When do you think you will be due?”

“The doctors believe it to be around May. I do not know if I can wait!” Judith laughed into his chest. He hasn’t seen her so happy in so long, and he wanted to freeze the moment, he wanted her to never know anything less than joy. But already Vikus felt the beginnings of sadness seeping into his own excitement for reasons he could not understand.

Now that he was sitting alone over the High Hall, he had a moment to determine exactly why that was. He had not felt this sort of worry when Susannah had her first two children, and nothing important had changed since then; the Underland was at peace, and while the gnawers were led by Gorger, he did not seem particularly aggressive for the time being.

But neither Howard nor Stellovet had been born the child of a king.

And while Judith’s husband was a good man and a good king in most respects, he despised the rats almost as much as Solovet, and Vikus knew that the peace would not be lasting. In fact, he knew the army was actively bolstering its ranks, preparing for attack. He feared that the child growing up in a world with terrible animosity between the gnawers and humans would lead to more of the same bloodshed when they took the throne. That there would never be any real change.

It was not the world he wanted his grandchild to live in.

_So do what you can to make it better,_ he reminded himself, resigning to the idea with a sigh. He would continue his attempts at understanding. Life had thrown many evils at him, but he would not let it turn him cold. He could not let it turn him cold. Not like it had turned—

“Are you ready to retire for the evening, or will you sit here until the balcony breaks?” called a voice, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Vikus turned over his shoulder and grinned as Solovet wandered over to where he was sitting, settling down next to him.

“I presume Judith has already told you?” She asked.

“She has,” he replied, nodding. “The doctors believe she will be due near May.”

“Just one more, and she will have caught up to Susannah.”

Vikus laughed. “I refuse to believe that Judith sees this as a competition.”

“Judith sees everything as a competition.”

“Oh, surely not _everything,_ ” said Vikus, yawning, and he wrapped an arm around his wife.

They sat there for quite a while, her head on his shoulder, and it was easy for Vikus to remember when they were young. The carefree days of secret trips to lakes, the crystal caves, anywhere they could find just to spend some extra time together. The sparring matches in the arena that always seemed to ended with no clear winner, but instead the two lying in a heap, laughing too hard to get up. The silent moments like this one, where each other’s company was all they needed. He tried to reconcile that fiery, bright young woman with the frigid commander next to him whose primary concern was the next battle. It is the same Solovet you fell in love with, he tried to remind himself feebly. But if he could go back in time, would he have done the same thing? Would he still have fallen for her if he knew he was courting war itself?

“Come, let us go home,” he said gently, unable to bear his thoughts any longer.

  


Vikus watched Gregor the Overlander slip out of the hospital door, heartsick with the knowledge it would be the last time he saw the boy. He glanced to Luxa, who watched Gregor go somberly, then turned to Vikus with a sad smile. “Let us clean you up, hm?” She said, gesturing to where Gregor’s still bleeding hand had grasped his. She turned to the counter next to his bed and picked up a small towel. “As negotiations were about to commence, there was a commotion in one of the tunnels the diggers has created, and out rose Ripred, half-dead and bleeding, claiming he would speak for the rats.” Luxa shook her head as she dipped the towel in a small water basin in the corner, noting, “He has always been one for theatrics, has he not?”

Vikus wanted to laugh. Yes, the gnawer certainly always had a flair for the dramatic.

“So, after the gnawers accepted Ripred speaking on their behalf, we began discussing the terms of the surrender, and I ordered him to lead his kind into the Uncharted Lands,” Luxa continued, her eyes fixed on Vikus’ hand as she wiped off the blood.

A rush of air left Vikus’ mouth in a involuntary sigh.

“Yes, Vikus, I know it was not particularly diplomatic of me,” said Luxa, her tone shifting from slightly ashamed to somewhat teasing. “As you can imagine, the gnawers did not like the idea much, and we considered going back to war. And then Gregor became furious and fulminated against us until we were embarrassed enough to consider other options. Oh, and he snapped Sandwich’s sword in two for good measure, as you can see,” Luxa recounted with the corners of her mouth turned up. “Ripred suggested a treaty; I told him that treaties had never done enough good in the past. So I offered my hand, Vikus.”

Vikus managed to raise his eyebrow in questioning, a gesture that was becoming easy for him. 

Luxa could see he did not understand. “Ripred agreed to become my bond, and in doing so, we created a symbolic bond between our people and the gnawers. I believe we may be beginning a more peaceful era,” she explained, finally meeting Vikus’ gaze, her half smile quickly blooming into a grin.

Relief and pride poured through Vikus’ body. It was finally over, then. A better future was on the horizon. He knew there would be many more negotiations before all was said and done, and creating true trust between the two species would take years, but this was the strongest foundation for lasting peace the Underland had ever seen. 

The wars had taken thousands of lives, and they had taken Judith and Hamnet and the wife he somehow still loved, but they would not take his grandchildren.

It was too much emotion to carry silently. He opened his mouth to attempt to say something, anything, to tell Luxa how happy he was, how fiercely proud he was, but when Luxa saw him struggling, she shushed him gently. “Do not worry, there will be plenty of time to speak later,” she said softly, squeezing his hand. “Just know that I did it for you, Grandpapa.”

For the first time in weeks, it was easy for Vikus to smile.

**Author's Note:**

> "The Unforgettable Fire" is an album and song by U2. I wasn't thinking about it at all when writing this until I was thinking of a title a few minutes before I published, but it's a good song for this fic (and Vikus and Solovet in general, on reflection), so I recommend it! Thank you guys SO much for taking the time to read this; it means a whole dang lot to me!!


End file.
